Question

Has anyone made a homemade rain sensor with a rain sensor pad tied into a smart things moisture sensor? I think it would be cool to have Alexa announce when it started to rain, though would have to turn it off some how so it wouldn’t go off I. The middle of the night. Right now I have dog beds outside drying and it might rain this afternoon so I keep watching the windows like a hawk.  

Answer 1

Could just put a water/leak sensor outside when you want notices like now with something drying outside. ‍♂️. The Samsung ones have water sensors on the top and bottom of the device. That’s my down and dirty simple easy $20 idea

Comments

@balk It will in a polluted environment, like a city. In a clean one it is definitely pure and non-conductive. Rain water that has run off a roof will be full of stuff that has collected on the roof over time.  

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@variola0 rain needs dust particles to form. They condensate around them. More condensate than the weight of natural air current make rain. Only way to get pure water is distillation.  

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To have perfect rain would be nearly impossible. Dust from the country or pollution from the city. Perhaps in the middle of the pacific the dust particles would be so minimal that it could be neglected - even the pollution in LA is from China so there's that.  

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@balk Yes but it’s not black or white. It’s a grey scale. Relatively, rain water is very pure. Not 100% but very close in a clean environment. I tried using moisture sensors to detect rainwater harvesting into a tank. Initially they detected water running but once the crud had washed through and off the roof, the sensors stopped detecting. I developed my own moisture/flood sensor and it’s very sensitive but won’t work with distilled water or ‘clean’ rain water. It just doesn’t conduct well enough.  

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@variola0 sure you need higher volts and a small leak sensor won't provide that. You could get a wireless tank level to detect changes.  

Answer 2

My velux has such a sensor but no idea how to get the info. By the way if someone knows look forward to know how  

Answer 3

My smart home does this. You have to be careful as it could get very annoying very quickly. It only announces it if it hasn’t rained for 24 hours but I get notifications otherwise. I tried loads of sensors and found optical one works best.  
https://smartisant.com/research/sen...n.php

Comments

@variola0 is it possible to tie that into something to get notifications, like a smart things sensor?  

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@apprehensible It’s 12V dc with switched output. It could be done using relay or opto-coupler.  

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Rob, do you have an Arduino sketch for the Hydreon - I don't particularly want to re-invent a wheel :-)

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In terms of Arduino code, it will simply pull the input pin high or low using the on-board relay. Depends on if you use normal-low or normal-high input. Email/messenger me if you need more specific help or sample code. The biggest challenge is going to be interfacing to your particular smart home control system.  

Answer 4

I use Dark Skies app, so not an automation. It notifies your cell right before any precipitation including rain, snow, sleet. Always accurate, but again not a smart appliance.  

Comments

@lona639 that could work. I’ll check it out, thanks